The fall 2019 Fresno Poets’ Association reading series lineup will celebrate past and present Fresno State faculty, including an opening reading with an accomplished novelist and a retiring poet professor from the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing.

The series will be newly hosted by poet Brynn Saito, who joined Fresno State’s English Department faculty in fall 2018. Saito hopes as much as possible for the series to now feature a local poet or writer alongside a visiting poet or writer, plus a Fresno State graduate student to warm up the crowd with introductions and an opening piece.

“I love when readings curate a diversity of voices and genres, producing unexpected resonances and points of inspiration,” Saito said. “The conversation between artists—from different places, career stages, genres, and forms—is creative fuel for us all.”

Saito, a Fresno native who returned to the Central Valley last year, grew up reading and revering Fresno poets and writers.

“The poems of Lawson Inada, Chuck Hanzlicek, Phil Levine, Sherley Williams, Andrés Montoya, and so many others totally shaped my understanding of poetry’s power—its capacity to make a place sing its own stories of struggle and joy,” she said.

Admission is free to both of this fall’s readings, which are sponsored by Fresno State’s College of Arts and Humanities, the Fresno County Public Library, and Poets & Writers Inc.

Liza Wieland has published eight books of fiction and a volume of poetry. In her latest novel, “Paris, 7 A.M.” published by Simon & Schuster, she imagines what happened to the poet Elizabeth Bishop during three life-changing weeks spent in Paris amidst the imminent threat of World War II. Wieland has received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and she is the 2017 winner of the Robert Penn Warren Prize from the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Her novel “A Watch of Nightingales” won the 2008 Michigan Literary Fiction Award, and her novel “Land of Enchantment” was a long-list finalist for the 2016 Chautauqua Prize. She formerly taught creative writing in Fresno State’s English Department, and she currently teaches at East Carolina University.

Corrinne Clegg Hales is the author of five poetry collections, including “To Make it Right,” winner of the 2010 Autumn House Press Poetry Prize. Her poems have appeared in many journals including the Hudson Review, Ploughshares, the Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, and The Southern Review. She is a professor of English at Fresno State, where she teaches in the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing and coordinates the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry book contest. After teaching poetry and literature at Fresno State for 35 years, Connie will retire this fall.

The reading will be held at 2:30 p.m. in the Betty Rodriguez Regional Library, 3040 N. Cedar Ave.

Message from the Dean

Dear Friends,

What an extraordinary spring this has been! Fresno is always so lovely this time of year, with the roses waking up from their winter slumber, azaleas blooming profusely, and annuals carefully planted to dress up even the most modest front yard. Metamorphosis is the very essence of springtime, and it has been remarkable to see how quickly Fresno State transformed its entire education into virtual offerings the week that spring arrived. Faculty, staff, and students have worked incredibly hard to learn new technological skills and to adapt curricular and administrative work to the virtual realm. What used to be assigned, invoiced, taught, turned in, graded, or signed all flows electronically now. More…

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